The last interview with Grace Kelly - on ABC's 20/20 (Part 2 of 6)

now you've uh I said a minute ago you're you're basically an American you were brought up in America uh how is it for an American to spend 26 years in Europe I mean do you lose contact with your with your country do you become more European do you see things differently uh one sees things differently certainly um I keep contact uh naturally with my family and my friends I make a great effort to um my friends are very important to me and uh I go often to the United States and I'm very eager to uh you know to keep up with what goes on there and I think it's very it's fairly easy for most Europeans to do I don't think Americans keep up with what's happening in Europe very much when I'm in America it's very hard to find any news about what's happening in Europe but of course once my children were born here I began to feel at home and uh this is where my family is now and um so in many ways I feel European but certainly my education is American and I'm still uh very much American what what do you see as the basic differences between the way Europeans see things and Americans see things do you do you see a difference well of course yes there is a difference but it's hard to would be hard to describe I think because the world is changing so much and so rapidly and uh what would have been true of a European way of thinking 10 or 20 years ago certainly isn't true today I don't know it would depend on which subject and which uh well as a way as a way of life uh the European way of life is different than the American way northern Europe than in southern Europe uh we perhaps have more in common here with other Mediterranean countries than we would with some of the northern European countries and the Mediterranean country seem to hold on to uh older Traditions longer and um don't accept change very easily don't you think also that there are uh different views of the values of for example time and uh oh certainly and the relationship with nature and well I think people here particularly in Monaco and on the coast here live each day as it comes a little bit more and are not quite in such a hurry and such a rush um was it difficult for you to I mean you'd have had a a very public life in America in the motion picture industry of course you've had a public life here but it's a totally different life very different when I was uh acting of course I loved acting I loved uh working in the theater and pictures I didn't particularly like being a movie star you know what I mean there's a big difference I love working at my craft I didn't like having to have a public uh the the public appearance of being a movie star um although even in Hollywood my private life was pretty much my own when I married my private life became public and I really had no privacy at all and that was an adjustment to make have you resented the invasion of your private life uh do you feel press has been unfair about it well in certain instances yes definitely uh although as far as my husband and I are concerned uh we are public figures and we have to expect that where my children are concerned uh they resent it very much and they don't feel they are public figures and that they don't have to be at their age and particularly their growing up years have been made very very difficult because of the uh press and the so-called Paparazzi who follow them uh relentless ly uh and it's not always their fault they're just trying to make a living the best way they can and but it's the editors who encourage them to do this and uh uh buy the pictures and this has been very very difficult and has caused a great deal of Anguish to me and to my children and they make up things they've made up romances they've made up they love to say my children have flunked out of school when they haven't in fact they've all been very good students uh they love to say um well if you know you believe some of the things I would have had at least 52 babies by now for many years I was always expecting a baby according to the press or that my husband and I are constantly being divorced which also is not the case um but uh my children have had to Stephanie for two years went to gymnastic class in the the trunk of the automobile just so that they wouldn't follow her wouldn't see her and then uh and you know there've been instances where Carolyn used to come home in tears from a tennis lesson she said well I couldn't have the lesson because the photographers were there and I didn't want to take it with them taking pictures you know and it was just this continual and they felt uh particularly Carolyn has felt very much I suppose like uh a a hunted animal you know with the the the hounds after her and it's um you know they really go in for the kill sometimes and it's it's unfortunate uh you know I've always felt that uh I'm always willing to give the other fellow the benefit of the doubt and I certainly respect people who have a job to do but when it comes to uh some papers kind of feel that we're fictitious characters and that gives them the right to make up any kind of story they want and this is you know one is helpless to in defense of that and if a child is very young I find it very uh well outrageous really that uh when Stephanie was 16 they've had her engaged to someone she never even set eyes on not engaged but I mean saying sneaking out to see or being uh you know putting innuendos there that made it sound something very disagreeable and um that's been hard for them growing up in the spotlight is not easy and it's it's been tough I don't think any mother can really see the future I think with all my children I hope that they'll be able to uh uh bring out their their qualities as as individuals you've been talking about the children which leads me to uh to another question and that is you were brought up in America you were brought up in Philadelphia in an Irish Catholic Family and now you brought up three children in a totally different Atmos osphere here in uh in Europe uh what would you say first of all are the basic differences between the way you yourself were brought up and the way you brought up your own children well I think I've tried to instill a lot of the a lot of my own upbringing into uh to their life and uh cuz we only know from our own experience and uh I've tried to adapt what I thought would be useful to them I think uh I've tried to uh expose them to as many things as possible as many uh to teach them as many skills as possible to expose them to as many points of view as possible to uh We've often had them with us with our friends uh to uh you know they haven't been I find that with a lot of uh my American friends the children are sort of pushed off to be with the children we've always tried to include the children with us and our friends and have all ages together which I think is uh is more beneficial and more fun for everyone uh maybe our children don't always think it that way but I think uh I think on the whole they're they're very fond of our friends and they've learned a lot from being around older people also here in Monte Carlo we have a very at certain times of year it's a very international meeting point and we've had perhaps around our table as many nationalities as as guests often and so our children have been exposed to a lot um naturally being in Europe there uh the emphasis on languages is uh is more important our children all speak uh English and French uh perfectly uh two of them speak German uh two Spanish and two of them Italian so that um you know they uh this I think is an important part of their their culture also uh what can I say the difference well there have been so many differences in American uh education since I was educated there too I mean uh so it's hard to compare the changes uh in American schools from what it was 20 years ago as now is very different and even here in Europe I noticed there's a big difference from the time that uh Caroline was in school as to her sister Stephanie and there's 8 years difference so um you know as mothers and Educators we have to adapt and change all the time

Channel: eleanorfan1111

Views: 821,648

Keywords: Princess, Grace Kelly, 1982, ABC 20/20, interview, Monaco, Pierre Salinger

Id: YeR9EiF1Axk

Length: 9min 43sec (583 seconds)

Published: Sun May 31 2009